CTC Blogs

Surrey is a fabulous place in which to be a cyclist: the Olympic road route, the Tour of Britain and of course RideLondon have all passed through its borders recently. CTC's Julie Rand shares the wealth of excellent off-road riding to be found in the county.

The atmosphere was sparkling at the Ride Leicester and City Festivals. As the CTC’s contribution to the event, we wanted to bring something new to Leicester. The AirBag was perfect – fun, a little scary, a great spectacle.

Parkwood Springs, the beautifully succesful mountain bike trail that CTC's Dan Cook has been instrumental in putting in place in Sheffield is running a visitor centre design competition, called VeloCity.

We are sometimes asked why we offer mountain biking skills in a flat city. Doesn’t it just encourage people to drive out of the city to cycle somewhere else – aren't we increasing motor traffic instead of increasing cycling?

Riding a bicycle can aggravate the prostate and cause other health problems in men. The design of the standard bicycle seat can rub against the prostate during the pedalling process. A comforatble saddle is key.

Having spent much of the summer riding sections of the Chilterns Cycleway in the central Chilterns, it was time to venture further afield to see what the rest of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire had to offer.

The forecast was for heavy rain, the sky was grey, the umbrellas were on standby…but that didn’t stop more than 60 women lining up on the start line for the first of Stilettos On Wheels mountain bike race of this year.

The CTC Insured 7stanes Display Team had another busy year in 2102. Over the six months from March to September, the team showed off their trials riding skills at 15 venues the length and breadth of Scotland - and even found time for a quick foray into Cumbria.

It's the largest mass-start cycling race in England, and probably one of the toughest too. This year it celebrated 50 years of existence and our local development officer, Anna Cipullo, went out to see what it was all about.

Pupils at Deans Community High School met the former Formula 1 star on 14 June but this time he was on two wheels instead of four. Nigel cycled through Livingston as part of a 1300 mile charity cycle ride from John O'Groats to Paris over 12 days, raising funds for Youth Charity UK Youth.

Three hundred S1 pupils at Larbert High School tried out different cycling activities over three days to encourage more pupils to take up cycling and get involved in cycling activities. They also organised their first ever girls only mountain bike trip.

Kirkcaldy based Mountain Bike Club met professional cycling team 'Team UK Youth' before they competed in the first round of the Halfords Tour Series. This was the first time the series has taken place in Scotland.